Out Of Tornado's Rubble, A New St. Peter Is Born
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) - One of the most important events in the history of St. Peter was a tornado that took two lives and damaged two thirds of the buildings here.
We're a couple months from the 17th anniversary of the tornado that wreaked havoc on the small town in the Minnesota River Valley of southern Minnesota.
The St. Peter tornado hit early in the season, on March 29, 1998.
And it left devastation in its path: 200 homes were gone, 400 more couldn't be lived in. Just about everyone in town had some kind of damage. Nearly every window at Gustavus Adolphus College was gone. So were thousands of trees.
But from that rubble came a success story.
Todd Prafke was just a few months into his job as city administrator when the tornado hit.
Nearly 17 years later, he can see the good that came from it.
"It gave us opportunities that we wouldn't have had," he said. "It gave the community as a whole, the school district and the county, the city, this opportunity -- a terrible opportunity -- where all the lines are erased and you have to redraw the lines how you think is best."
They started nearly from scratch and, with lots of help, built a town everyone could be proud of. Power lines knocked down in the tornado are now under ground. Thousands of new trees line the streets. And a beautiful community center and library sit where a Catholic church was destroyed.
"Whenever you have an event like that, whether it's a tornado or a flood or a fire, you have to decide within yourself, within your community, whether you're going to pick yourself back up," Prafke said. "You either do or you don't, and St. Peter did."
Prafke said the community came together to support each other and move forward after the tornado.
